Reid Alice
The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Downing Place, Cambridge CB2 3EN, UK.
Womens Stud Int Forum. 2017 Jan-Feb;60:111-119. doi: 10.1016/j.wsif.2016.10.011.
This paper uses detailed records relating to feeding and health for a large sample of infants born in Derbyshire in the early twentieth century to provide a more detailed and nuanced picture than has previously been possible of the extent and duration of breast-feeding, reasons for ceasing to feed and the dangers of feeding in the early twentieth century. Results indicate that breast-feeding was the norm among working class British women in the early twentieth century, but the social gradient was the inverse to that found in Britain today. However this disguises much individual variation and early weaning was more common among twins, illegitimate infants, first births, and women in poor health, which placed infants at greater risk of death from many causes of death, but particularly gastro-intestinal infections. There is evidence that health visitors were successful both in promoting breast-feeding and in supporting safe hand-feeding.
本文利用了20世纪初在德比郡出生的大量婴儿的喂养和健康详细记录，以呈现一幅比以往更详细、更细致入微的画面，展示20世纪初母乳喂养的程度和持续时间、停止喂养的原因以及喂养的风险。结果表明，母乳喂养在20世纪初英国工人阶级女性中是常态，但社会阶层差异与当今英国的情况相反。然而，这掩盖了许多个体差异，双胞胎、非婚生婴儿、头胎婴儿以及健康状况不佳的女性更早断奶的情况更为普遍，这使婴儿因多种死因，尤其是胃肠道感染而死亡的风险更高。有证据表明，健康访视员在促进母乳喂养和支持安全人工喂养方面都取得了成功。
